Sometimes smoke from the papermill melds into clouds above to resemble a tornado. Other than that, the morning turns out not so photogenic except maybe as a picture of clinical depression. Gray tinged with streaks of lighter gray, light almost white,  underscored by the silver Bay. I cropped most of the Bay to cut the docks intruding into the pax, but it’s there. Truth, I’m a happy person, but can’t help loving these drear days that include light but not the sun, and at eighty with bits and pieces of the mind still functioning, every day is a beautiful day and a blessing. Because the flowers were gone, faded out, apparently removed by a family member who had brightened up everyone else’s marker, it was bothering me there was no sign of love. A few weeks go I asked Linda to select red, orange, yellow, maybe flame colors and, no flower arranger, I took them. What took me down Tuesday afternoon was finding out a cure is at hand. Down, way, way down. But blessings ...

Sophie & Kesi Tuesday morning Bible Seminar gathers today, has been meeting two terms a year, fall and spring, since 2009 I think. We’ve read and discussed lots of things, Bible books Old Testament and New. My favorite Old is Genesis, New is Mark, Revelation may be third favorite though it only comes round Easter Season of Lectionary Year C. We do the whole thing, all 22 chapters, and if we don’t finish this morning we probably will do next week.  We’ve also done several books of the Apocrypha, Ecclesiasticus, Bel & the Dragon, and non-canonical books, GThomas, Acts of Paul & Thesla, GPeter, and some odd things that catch media interest like GJudasIscariot. I’ve really enjoyed all this and always learn more than anyone in the seminar group.    Were we not ensconced in Revelation and the end of our 2016 Spring Term at hand, I’d take advantage of our first reading for Trinity Sunday Year C and explore Proverbs again with the group. We’ve done it bef...

Bad or good, wonderful or terrible, I have found in life that everything that happens and has happened to me in life makes me a better person, has prepared and continues to prepare me to encounter life. Particularly as a priest and pastor, counselor, advisor, mentor, helper, friend, my own experiences of life are and have always been more helpful to me than reading, studying the textbooks, works, internet websites of experts. This doesn’t go for disciplines such as trying to work with Greek, and reading such as the sermons of noted preachers to raise my imagination and improve my skills; but it certainly has and does when it comes to one on one meetings with hurting folks and meetings with groups, my empathy and sensitivity with people. With rare exception, I try never to bring myself into listening and counseling sessions, but listening, hearing in the sense of ὁράω (Mark 9:1, original word), seeing, understanding, perceiving where someone is at a juncture in life comes better from ...

The Geranium Farm is Barbara Crafton’s website from which she distributes daily, apparently has supplanted her earlier “The Almost Daily Emo” that she seems to have somewhat discontinued upon retirement as an Episcopal priest. I could skip the “Daily” but can’t resist opening now lest I miss one of her soothingly intriguing, almost magical commentaries on some work of art from early Christian centuries. This morning her subject is  Giotto de Bondoni..........Pentecost Italian, ca. 1304-1306 Scrovegni Chapel, Padua two Giotto works, one Pentecost, the other is The Last Supper. Here is Pentecost In retirement, Barbara leads retreats and has done at least two in our diocese, Linda attended one, maybe someday I’ll get to one. If not, I’m content with her emails. The Church makes a biggie of Pentecost, one of the seven Principal Feasts along with Easter, Christmas and the other four. People will be wearing red at church today, and the church will be vested in red, s...

Ship anchored offshore in the Gulf, looks to be a large one. Numerous boats speeding out for another Saturday of weekend red snapper season. Earlier a dredge barge headed out to sea, must have a job at a channel nearby or maybe going over to replenish someone’s beach. 70.9F 61% looks to be a near perfect day and there goes the 7:00 whistle at the paper-mill off to our east. Bay is flat. Another Saturday with the yellow boat testing Mercury motors zipping by, east to west, now west to east and back toward its dock in Millville. Single engine plane buzzing overhead. Bright green kayak paddling by with a person in orange life vest. pace  Hurricane season 2016 opens in a couple weeks. Shhhh, knock-wood, and wishing you long years. Here’s tomorrow’s collect for the day. Actually there are two, we have a choice, here’s the first: Almighty God, who on this day didst open the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of thy Holy Spirit: Shed abroad th...

Friday the Thirteenth, it’s been a neti-pot week of napping all day long, missed text messages, being waked up from one sound sleep by the ringing phone and a recorded voice calling about a credit card and saying, “there’s no problem,” click and fling the phone off the porch into the Bay; and idly wondering if George Washington, Ben Franklin and other Constitution signers had in mind that the President would instruct county school districts across the nation regarding use of restrooms. I know, it’s just me. Nevermind.   One of life’s devastating moments is to come to the end of a beloved and thoroughly enjoyed book and, realizing it is over and done, surfacing back into the reality show of ordinary life. A.N. Wilson’s biography of C.S. Lewis, I’ve stretched out as long as possible, yesterday broke my rule and read two chapters. The next chapter is titled “Further Up and Further In,” a key line from the Narnia books, and I’m afraid it will be the last. The book has stretched me...

White, pure white out, fog Beck 'n Bay. Humidity 100%? Six-monthly dermatology visit this morning to burn off these reminders of sunburns decades ago. Sunday is Pentecost, when we show red and read Luke’s  account  at Acts 2. I like our first reading, a great little story Genesis 11:1-9 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the LORD said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only...